Greek, some more greek, and a dash of Roman too! [beware this blog is almost entirely full of ruins]

Me, being me, made sure to get in my fill of ancient sites this spring break, visiting Paestum, Capri, Taormina, Syracuse and Agrigento, all of which had some pretty awesome ruins. And let me tell you a little secret- I love the Romans, but they just can't compare to the Greeks when it comes to flair and setting. Man, did they know how to pick locations!

Paestum: we spent our first day in Paestum, and it was probably one of my favorite days of the trip! The site was in the middle of Italian countryside, it was the most beautiful day, and I was blown away by my first views of a intact Greek temples!

 Capri- Tiberius, the Roman Emperor is famous for abandoning Rome at the end of his reign, and retreating to Capri. We spent the early morning walking up to and around his villa- by far my favorite part was the Salto dei Tiberius. Pictured below, it is a 500 meter drop from which Tiberius (supposedly) flung people he didn't like.

 Taromina- this theater showed off the flair of the Greeks. Behind the Sceanae frons the audience was delighted with views of the Ionian coast and the shoreline. This wasn't the only epic view though, attenders were delighted with more views of the hilly terrain, rocky beaches, and on a clear day (which we didn't have) Mt. Etna as they filtered in to the theater from the corridors behind

Syracuse- this epic Greek colony was absolutely beautiful! And once again the theater afforded a beautiful view of the sea. The archaeological Park (an actual park!!!) also included a really cool Roman amphitheater and the huge cave called Orecchio di Dionisio (ear of dionysus, apparently coined by Caravaggio), which gave me a feeling that I had somehow wandering into Middle Earth.

Valle dei Templi, Agrigento 

This complex of ruins is set in a valley of almond groves, overlooking the sea with a backdrop of hills, dotted with windmills! This day was also one of my favorite- not only was the Valley absolutely gorgeous, but the day was wonderful (it was so nice I got my first sunburn of the year), the town of agrigento was cute, and we stayed in our favorite little hostel.

When standing up, this guy is REALLY big! (refer to picture below)

Me pretending to hold up the entablature, like the hercules statue behind me.

Look at how big the bottom of the base of the column is!

Me pretendign to eat a not ripe almond

Spring break 2011

Hey everybody!
These last two weeks have been an absolute whirlwind! My friend Shaili and I set off right after classes two Wednesdays ago, excited but not quite sure what to expect from our ten days in the Almalfi Coast and Sicily.  Luckily, southern Italy did not disappoint- the trip was filled to the brim with natural beauty, man-made wonders, great food, good conversations,  early nights (I loved traveling with another morning person!) and lots of fun. If I tried to tell you about it all at once it would exhaust me and overwhelm you. My plan to solve this dilemma, which I hope you will find fun,  is to update you in a couple shorter posts over the next couple days. I'm not going to lie, the post I'm probably most looking forward to the one in which, I will I tell you about my amazing food we ate! Below are two lists to get you started

An overview of my trip-

Day 1- Paestum

Day 2-Almalfi Coast

Day 3-Capri

Day 4-Neopolitan pizza, mcdonalds, and an overnight train to Siciliy

Day 5- Taormina and Catania

Day 6-Syracuse

Day 7- Mt. Etna

Day 8- Agrigento

Day 9- Palermo

(Day 0 and 11 were saved for traveling)

Five Random great moments

• Who would of thought I would go all the way to Italy to touch an American monument that hit home? Waiting for the train to Paestum, in Pompeii we found a September 11 monument in the town square, and I got to touch a piece of the World Trade Center- unreal does not even begin to describe that moment!

 

• The lovely other travelers we met (most of whom were not under 28). Especially the wine sommelier from  Vermont, and the avid German environmentalists.
• Being blonde and wearing a red coat. Though I stick out some in Rome and the other parts of Italy, I swear when i was in Sicily, some people looked at me like I was from an Alien race. Our first day in Taormina we thought maybe an Old Lady must just have thought that I looked like someone she knew. I think I finally figured it out on the bus back from Mt. Etna a couple days later when a local women moved in front of us and started a conversation with us by asking me what the date was. I, being enthralled in my Marcus Didius Falco book, unintentionally brushed her aside, and Shaili leaned over a whispered, "I think she just wants to talk to you."

In case you forgot about my hair. Or my red coat. Oh, and the rainy days with my flower umbrella probably didn't help either.

• We spent our first two days only semi-impressed with Catania due to our tired bodies and an extremely questionable busride. Luckily, our last night in Catania we walked back from the Train Station and we came to the realization that Catania is one of the most cities! The streets and Piazzas were wide, the architecture was so interesting and they had the most beautiful lights lining all the buildings and streets. It was the most amazing feeling to suddenly have our eyes opened, and to realize how much we'd let our feelings rule our expirience.

The main square all lit up

A beautiful park around the corner

did I mention our window looked out on a Castle?

• The days we spent among the clouds. Seriously, we spent two days walking in clouds. The first was on the Almalfi coast, where we were enveloped by thick fog. At a garden in Ravello, known for its view over the sea, we stood at the look at point and could literally not see more than a foot in front of your face. Standing at the edge of the terrace, it seemed as if our world ended right in front of us. The second time was at Mount Etna. When we reached the top (by cable car, I'm not that hardcore), we could see clouds surrounding us, moving around the plains and peaks in our view. While walking around the top we were engulfed a couple of times by the clouds, and one lucky time, after emerging from our lunch in the warmth of the lodge, we got to walk above the clouds. And now- cloud pics!

In a cloud

The peak next to us is being engulfed!

This is when it looked like we were above the clouds!

This one, as you could probably infer is on the Almalfi coast

Beware the Ides of March!!

Springtime has descended quickly upon Rome within the past week, making it almost unbearably pleasant in a city which I did not know could get any better! It all started last Thursday when I was on my way to school, I was listening to music, distracted by my own thoughts and I looked up and BAMB- I noticed that the trees were blooming! Here is a lovely picture of a tree on my way to school for your enjoyment!

Unfortunately, interspersed between these beautiful spring days have been lots and lots and lots of spring showers- good for the flowers, bad for those who walk everywhere (and also those who are headed for spring break!). In the middle of this nice weather and thunderstorms I managed to go on two day trips, a school field trip and two days of exploring “un-chartered” territory here in Rome!

Last Friday, I woke up bright and early at 4:30 and headed to Florence on a school organized day trip! We were actually only in Florence from about 11:00 to 4:30, so in that time we were able to go on a walking tour of the city, visit San Croce (where Dante, and other were buried!), ate a nice lunch and then hit up the awesome leather markets!

San Croce

somebody important's tomb

David replica in the square it was originally put in

Shaily and I

bridge over the river

the dome

Saturday, I was invited to a little town about two hours north of Rome, called Viterbo by a girl from one of my classes. I didn’t know much about it but decided it would be fun to check out anyways; luckily I did because it turned out to be a little town which was home to the Popes for a while in the Middle Ages and is known for having a city center which almost entirely preserves the Medieval architecture- I also happened to have one of my best meals so far here (I finally ordered meat).

medieval palace/cathedral complex in viterbo

heart mementos in the church museum, given to the church after a prayer to do with love was answered- how cute!

the "romanesque church"

The hidden Baroque apse of the Cathedral! It's a good thing that we paid to take a tour of the grounds becuase behind a door in the apse in the picture above, is this wonder! the church was damaged in WWII and the silly restorers decided to "restore it" to its medieval origins, cutting off later additions with these beautiful frescoes!

where they cut off the baroque cathedral when resotring the romanesue structure

Prima Piatto

Pancetta!!! Segundo Piatti

Sunday, is spent most of the walking around the city, seeing sites and trying to find new and better ways to cut through the winding streets between them. Some highlights of my wanderings were:

A random church I came upon while wandering

McDonalds! Robyn, my supervisor at Ashkelon told me there was an Mcdonald's built into the ruins, I found two Mcdonald's and dont think I found it, but this one had an ancient inscription next to a sign in its basement.

The church at the top of the spanish steps

The view from the top Pincio Hill in Villa Borghese

The view of Piazza de Popolo from Pincio

Trevi Fountain! I met my roommates here before heading with them to the Capucian crypt, too bad it was raining otherwise, I would've snapped a picture of myself there.

The Capucian crypt! The Capucian monks began exhuming bodies in the medieval time period in ored to make room for more buriels and istead of disposing of the bodies irreverently they decided top make cool designs out of them! It was an expirience that was equal parts cool, beautiful, creepy and just plain wierd.

Yesterday, however, the Ides of March, was probably my favorite day here in Rome thus far! Both of my classes were scheduled to head to Ostia Antica, the port city of Rome during the Empire (about 4o minutes outside of the city by commuter train), so not only did I get to spend the entire day learning about this interesting city, I had almost two hours between the classes to enjoy exploring the ancient city with my friend Rebecca, who is in both classes with me! The day was absolutely gorgeous, almost 70 degrees, and since Rebecca is as much of an archaeology nerd as I am we spent almost our entire lunch break exploring the site, climbing on top of the ruins, identifying things, and taking pictures (plus, we stopped a couple minutes early to grab Gelato because it was so beautiful out!) Unfortunately, because of my class adventures I missed most of the Hooplah over at Largo Argentina for the Ides of March (they reinact Caesar’s death!) but I was able to head over towards the end of the celebration, see the decorations and just enjoy the fact that it was ridiculously beautiful out, I was in Rome, AND looking down at the spot of Caesar’s assassination on the Ides of March- what a life!

Our meeting point for the day was at, no big, a pyramid!

The romans bring a whole new meaning to "Public Restroom"

Well, I better head because IVE GOT A SPRING BREAK TO GO TO! YAY! You won’t be hearing from me for at least ten days because I will be enjoying myself (and if wheather.com is correct, lots of rain will be joining me L) on the Almalfi coast and Sicily, where I will see lots of beautiful sites, hike on two volcanoes, and see some pretty ridiculous greek ruins!